Telephony systems allowing voice communications between remote users have been available for many years, and provide a common means of communication. Communications systems that provide video capabilities have also been developed. For example, video telephony devices that allow voice and video data to be transmitted using conventional telephone lines have been developed. Furthermore, with the arrival of high speed Internet connections, video telephony devices using Internet Protocol (IP) communication channels have been developed.
In recent years a growing number of telephone services have become available to users of telephone services. Such services include, for example, call forwarding, call waiting, conferencing, and caller identification. Caller identification, or Caller ID, has become particularly popular as it allows called parties a certain degree of call screening prior to answering a call. In a typical case, the called party's telephone has a caller ID screen or a stand-alone caller ID device to which it is attached. When the called party receives a call, caller identification information concerning the calling party, including the date and time of the call, and often the name and number of the calling party, is displayed on the screen of the called party's caller ID device.
Once the called party has received the Caller ID information, an additional degree of screening may be performed if the caller's phone is equipped with an answering system that records messages left by a caller. In this case the called party can listen to a caller's message as it is being recorded before deciding whether to answer the call.
Conventional caller ID functions generally provide the phone number and name of the calling party. A video telephony device, however, in addition to providing conventional caller ID functions, can provide an image (still or video) related to the incoming call. For example, the image presented by the calling video telephony device can be a live or recorded image showing the calling party. Alternatively, the image can be a business logo, or other type of image that is selected by the calling party or even by the called party. The image can consist of a single frame of information or a multi-frame, multimedia presentation. In any case, the image or images can be displayed on the receiving party's phone.
Thus, when the caller and called party both have a video telephony device, and in particular when the called party's video telephony device is equipped with an answering machine, the called party may perform call screening in a number of different ways. For instance, the called party may read the name and number of the caller off the display using the caller ID functionality. The called party may also view the image that is included with the caller ID information. Finally, the called party can listen to the message that the caller is leaving. The caller may select any or all of these options when performing call screening before deciding whether to answer the call.